What is the difference between quantitative analysis and regression analysis?

[63dot]

I took quantitative analysis to fulfill the math requirement for my MBA, took time off, and now they say I need to take regression analysis to fulfill that math requirement under the new rules. OK, then.

Are they not the same?

From what I gather maybe quantitative analysis is more formulas and numbers, and maybe regression analysis is the written narratives on the analysis of the numbers in essay form.??

As an analogy, is quant:

1+1=2

and regression:

"Take the number one and add it to the number one and therefore by looking at the equation, the sum is two. Conclusion: Therefore my conclusion is that the sum of both of those numbers is two."

The syllablus says we will use the Harvard Business School Case Study Method for regression analysis to do our work. From what I have been taught, that is essay with a capital "E". Quant class was formulas and numbers only, no essays.

 

[RedTomato]

Google and Wiki are your friends, my man. If you're not knowledgeable enough to find the answer to your question above on the internet, then maybe you shouldn't consider yourself ready for a MBA.

Strike that.

Instead of doing 5 minutes research, you decided to ask us to do your hard work for you. Maybe you'll make an excellent PHB.

 

[Raid]

Hmm to give you the executive summary:
Quantitative analysis would answer questions like what is the mean, standard deviation of 'x'. Blurring the lines into regression analysis (but not really crossing it) would be answering what is the correlation of 'x' and 'y'.

Regression analysis answers questions like within a probability of #% how much of observed 'x' units are needed to result in 'y' units. Then much of regression analysis is then used to examine the model 'y'= C +?'x'+e and how vaild it is to observed results.

 

[63dot]

then maybe you shouldn't consider yourself ready for a MBA.

Heck, that's what I thought as I did old school game theory and all that, but then I talked to the actual professor and "new" regression analysis is looking at Microsoft Excel Data, and writing 14 page Harvard School case study essays on them. I thought it was math, but it's narrative, essay analysis, something that did not exist when I dropped out of the MBA program ten years ago when I ran out of money.

I fell off the technology curve and old school guys like me, who first learned on slide rule, thought of math as equations. It never occurred to me that it could be an essay.

 

[mkrishnan]

Actually, this is an MBA we're talking about... if you even care about the difference between different quantitative statistical methods, then you shouldn't be getting an MBA.

Seriously, there are lots of quantitative methods. It's hard to know whether you'll learn anything new without seeing syllabuses for both classes, but there's a lot to statistics. And regression and regression-based methods are just one of many different kinds of statistical analyses applicable to quantitative problems....

 

[63dot]

Actually, this is an MBA we're talking about... if you even care about the difference between different quantitative statistical methods, then you shouldn't be getting an MBA.

Seriously, there are lots of quantitative methods. It's hard to know whether you'll learn anything new without seeing syllabuses for both classes, but there's a lot to statistics. And regression and regression-based methods are just one of many different kinds of statistical analyses applicable to quantitative problems....

It's not a full MBA, and I will be straight with you right then and there. It's a semi-MBA in a joint program called a JD/MBA, part business, part law, just the rough points of both fields but no real depth. I am using it to support my knowledge to grow my business so I am not trying to be a quant jock.

 

[mkrishnan]

It's not a full MBA, and I will be straight with you right then and there. It's a semi-MBA in a joint program called a JD/MBA, part business, part law, just the rough points of both fields but no real depth. I am using it to support my knowledge to grow my business so I am not trying to be a quant jock.

Haha, no, I'm sorry, what I meant was that most people in MBA programs do not have the mentality to handle statistics... finance is about as far as they go with math. So you're ahead of the curve.

 

[63dot]

Haha, no, I'm sorry, what I meant was that most people in MBA programs do not have the mentality to handle statistics... finance is about as far as they go with math. So you're ahead of the curve.

Remember Harold and Kumar?

Well I am supposed to be the smart Chinese guy, but in reality I am only OK at math. SAT math, I am set and good, but in real college math, I really suck, much like Bobby Lee's character from MadTV, that "average Asian guy" who is not good at differential equations.

I really thought regression analysis was a part of quantitative analysis, but then I found out one is math, the other is long-winded economic essay commentary.

 

[rhsgolfer33]

Haha, no, I'm sorry, what I meant was that most people in MBA programs do not have the mentality to handle statistics... finance is about as far as they go with math. So you're ahead of the curve.

Tell me about, I just finished taking undergraduate Econ Statistics as a requirement for my Accounting B.S.. Is it just me or are business majors exceedingly poor at statistics? We did everything in Excel, didn't memorize but one formula the whole semester, granted the teacher wasn't great, but most of the class could barely pull C's; its not that freaking hard. I took a stats class in high school where we learned and memorized the formulas for everything we did, this supposed higher level college course was actually easier. I understand the reasoning for using Excel, an accountant or manager isn't going to plug stuff into a formula when there is a far faster way, but man are business majors terrible at math. Thankfully Quantitative Analysis, the more advance class, is only required for accounting and economics majors, so the grades will hopefully be higher.

 

[mkrishnan]

Remember Harold and Kumar?

I am good at Math, and yet to be the Harold with any interests outside of hard quantitative topics ... if I came home and told my parents I was interested in painting, you'd have thought I'd come home and told them I shot heroin. So I feel ya.

On the other hand, if Doogie Howser tries to take my girlfriend, I might just kick his ass.

 

[63dot]

Tell me about, I just finished taking undergraduate Econ Statistics as a requirement for my Accounting B.S.. Is it just me or are business majors exceedingly poor at statistics?

Maybe it's us business majors. When I took stats and quantitative analysis in my first year of MBA school, I had a bachelor's in mgt/hr/labor law in a degree called "human relations", the in-term for the time that is now called human resources management and was once called personnel management, but basically a general business degree with no real expertise in anything hard.

All the other people in the class had engineering degrees or had a minor in an engineering topic. All those people kicked my butt in the class.

For quantitative analysis, you have to have calculus for engineers/hard sciences as a prerequisite. Business majors don't take that class unless they want to as an elective. We took a class called business calculus nearly 30 years ago which was algebra, stats, and some rudimentary quantitative analysis, with no real calculus as any person would recognize it.

As for using Excel for "regression" analysis or "business statistics", this is the new trend as the real world won't have you busting out pen and paper and worrying about standard deviations, histograms, and scatter plots. You will use Excel so the teaching is actually better. I learned this today from my math professor. My first college math class used slide rules, and while hard and chest beating nerd stuff, calculators changed all that. Real math people poo poo'd the calculator, but today the calculator is accepted by math people, just like Excel is accepted as the tool for business statistics and regression analysis.

My regression analysis class will be plugging in numbers assigned to us, and writing 14 page Harvard Business School case study papers on them in the "problem", "analysis", "alternatives", and "conclusion" format. Not the old quantitative analysis stuff, but the "new" math of MBA school.

Back in undergrad, I had to read Wealth of Nations, but today, it's not the textbook for Micro and Macro Economics. People use computers for that now. Computers help in that you can have more power at your fingertips but a bad side effect is bad spelling w/o MS Word and figuring out math problems in one's head w/o calculator.